


The Waiting Game

by orphan_account



Series: Ginger-headed sailors [1]
Category: Cabin Pressure, Doctor Who
Genre: Gen, Kid Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-17
Updated: 2012-10-17
Packaged: 2017-11-16 13:03:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/539721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One trip was all it took, in the end, to get Martin hooked on the stars.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Waiting Game

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Ad Astra](https://archiveofourown.org/works/539625) by [Leonawriter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leonawriter/pseuds/Leonawriter). 



Martin didn't always want to fly. Why would he? He'd lived all his life in Wokingham, with Mummy and Daddy and Simon and Caitlin, all of whom were far too busy to pay attention to a quiet six-year-old.

Martin Crieff had never flown before, never felt the ground drop away beneath him; his feet stayed firmly on the ground, along with his dreams.

Then, one day when Martin had been left in the garden to entertain himself while Mummy went shopping, the strange man appeared.

Well, actually a box appeared on top of Mummy's favourite rose bush. Then the man fell out of it. Coughing, the man straightened up, waving smoke away from his face. He was wearing a fez and grinning in a way that probably wasn't usual when you'd apparently just escaped an explosion. The man looked around at where he'd landed and spotted Martin staring at him with wide eyes. The man made an odd face (and what an odd face he had!), wrinkling his nose.

"Wait a minute... this is familiar," he said, poking the boy, who blinked in confusion. "What, every time I blow up the TARDIS she's going to dump me in a small ginger child's back garden? Is this our thing now?" he turned back towards the box. " _This_ is our thing?"

Martin finally blurted out a random question in his confusion. "Are you a policeman?"

"Why does  _everyone_ ask that?" the man asked in frustration.

"... It says 'Police' on your b-box?" the boy pointed out timidly, a fierce scarlet blush seeping across his freckled cheeks at the stutter.

The man grinned. "Good point!" He held out a hand. "I'm the doctor." they shook hands.

"I'm Martin. And I already saw a doctor; he says I have funny ears, so I should try not to get dizzy." Martin told him ernestly. Then, "can I try on your hat, Mister Doctor?" he asked shyly. "Daddy never lets me try on his."

The Doctor plonked his fez onto Martin's ginger curls, where it slipped down so that it nearly covered his eyes. Martin pushed it back up, blinking in mild amusement at the mad man with the Hat. "Keep it; I've got hundreds." He paused thoughtfully, then grinned again. "So, Martin-who-has-funny-ears-and-a-hat, what would you say to a trip in a spaceship?"

* * *

It's bigger on the inside, but that wasn't really important. Not when Martin was stood in the doorway of an impossible blue box, gazing down at the earth. The Doctor stood next to him, a tiny half-smile on his face as the youngest Crieff sat there and drank it in. The pair of them stood by and watched as the earth spun on through the starry sky.

Martin Crieff finally knew that he was born to  _fly._

* * *

 

"I'll be back soon," the Doctor tells him as he steps back into the TARDIS. "I promise I'll visit again."

Martin believed him with the unswerving faith that only a small child can muster. He knew he wouldn't lie.

* * *

"Simon!" Martin yelled as he came running back into the house. "I flew. I  _flew!"_

Simon barely looked up at his brother from the sheets of homework he was trying to finish. "Shut up, Martin."

* * *

He kept the fez for more than a year before Daddy finally sat on it and threw it away.

* * *

"You can't be an aeroplane, stupid," Caitlin told him, rolling her eyes. "You're a person. Planes are just lumps of metal."

Martin drooped, crestfallen, as he stopped playing his game. His 'wings' dropped to his sides, turning back into arms again. "But then... how will I fly?"

Caitlin sighed, taking pity on her sibling. "You become a  _pilot,_ silly," she told him.

* * *

Now Martin finally gets to live his dream, soaring among the stars. It's not quite how he'd imagined it, all those years ago, but that's ok. It's as good as he could expect his life to be, and he gets to wear a hat. Anyway, it's just until the doctor comes back, with his magical blue box, to whisk him away to the stars.

He still trusts the strange man with a hundred fezzes and a spaceship to keep his promise, and until then... well, he's content to play the waiting game.

* * *

"Martin!" Douglas calls from the door of the aeroplane. "Chap here says he wants to speak with you. Apparently he's got an 'appointment'."

Martin nods absently, even though he knows Douglas can't see him, busy scribbling in his log book. "What's he like?" he calls back.

"Rather odd, actually," Douglas replies, appearing in the flight deck doorway. "He's got a stetson and an armful of fezzes and he keeps on insisting that he's late." the first officer raises an eyebrow.  "Have you finally taken my advice and started a society for people with ridiculous hats?"

Martin stood up, a small smile on his face. "Douglas," he replied, "there's somebody I should probably introduce you to." he moved past his bemused FO, making his way towards GERTI's doorway.

Next to a big, blue box there stood a lanky man in a bowtie with enough fezzes for a lifetime. He grinned when he saw Martin emerge from the aeroplane, not a  _day_ older than when Martin first met him. He handed Martin a fez. "Sorry I'm late," he told the pilot. "Are you  ready for some adventure?" his eyes danced with childish glee and filled with silent laughter.

Martin put the fez on, grinning. "Oh god, yes," he replied. _Captain dons cap,_ he thought gleefully as he pushed it down firmly over his ginger curls. The waiting was finally over. Now it was time to  _fly._


End file.
